Namgung Se-ga, the warrior, was reincarnated in Romance

For a brief moment, I had become excited about the idea of sharing my internal cultivation techniques with the disciples here, aided by the mages. However, as I was able to identify only twelve of the three hundred sixty-three acupoints, I felt a sense of disappointment.

Acupoints are hidden within the human body, so it wasn’t enough to simply guess their approximate locations. It was like a person who can’t cook, pouring in a huge amount of salt thinking it would be just about right — no matter how good the ingredients are, the food will be inedible.

I understood my own body well, but as I was not a physician, I didn’t know how other people’s pulse and energy flow worked.

In the Central Plains, it was considered improper to touch a martial artist’s pulse. A master of internal energy could use their aura to threaten or control someone by forcing their energy into another person’s vital points. Grabbing someone’s wrist and speaking with them was no different from seizing their neck.

Moreover, the people of this place, Sieran, were physically different from those in the Central Plains. The more I thought about it, the more helpless I felt.

That wasn’t the only issue.

“Professor, what do you think? When I compare the way the knights are using their aura with my own method… Of course, I have gained power quickly using my technique, but it seems like this is not something that could be universally applied.”

“I think you’re right. The method of accumulating mana naturally through breath since birth means the individual awakened to the immaterial world at the purest and most intimate stage with mana. Even if you know the method, not just anyone can follow it. A person needs to be at least eight years old to be able to move their limbs according to their own will.”

“True…”

“And even if they are eight years old, you still don’t know if that child wants to become a knight, a mage, or a baker. That’s an important issue.”

I froze at the unexpected words.

The thought that a child might not know what they want to become left me speechless. In many parts of the Central Plains, children were always hungry. In every town, there were beggar groups, and a third of them were children.

The openness and prosperity made sense. When it’s said there are 100,000 open doors, it’s essentially saying there are more than 100,000 beggars in the martial world.

In the capital of the empire, Hebei, in the famous Hubei province known for its Dongjing Lake, and in places like Guangxi, Guangdong, Guizhou, Shaanxi, and Xian, one could pick up a useful child anywhere.

The Gu Fa Clan was in the middle, both a Taoist and a beggar. If a capable child of about five or six years old was left unprotected on the street, they would just pick them up and take them in as a disciple.

The children who became martial artists in this way spent their entire lives serving their masters, whom they considered like parents, pledging loyalty to their schools.

The Five Great Families were bound by blood. When they married and had children, those children became the martial artists of the family. Those who were weak or not born with martial potential were ridiculed and assigned to manage farmland or libraries. Born into the family, they had to die within the family.

At least, children who became part of the orthodox sects were somewhat better off.

The Hao Sect used girls to become courtesans, and the rogue sects like the Black Death Sect and the Moon Under Sect took older children to steal money from the common people.

Assassination organizations like the Ying Yang Sect and the Silver Moon Sect captured children, imprisoned them in caves, and raised them to be assassins after cutting off their tongues. The Demon Sect, which aimed to take control of the martial world, buried a hundred children in a pit and waited for one to survive, then took the survivor as their follower.

Children were not beings who chose their paths but were chosen by those with power.

From the moment I was born in the Central Plains, I was meant to become a martial artist. Even when I was born in Sieran, I was still destined to be one. However, the man before me had probably never considered such a life.

My fingers were trembling as I placed them on the table.

Douglas, observing my expression, seemed to notice something was wrong and brought the water glass closer.

“Why the sudden change? Are you cold? Should I get a blanket for you?”

“No, no. It’s not that. I was just thinking about how difficult it must be to find a child who wants to become a knight from birth… That’s what’s making me feel helpless… The method I use… is something that’s typically started around five years old… I’ve heard that by ten years old, it’s already too late…”

“That’s true, right? It didn’t seem like a method that could be generally applied. That’s why it was so amazing. Then, should we look at the experiments conducted on animals and monsters? It’s marked here with a blue string—”

His voice remained soft and kind. His large frame was hunched over, appearing smaller in order to avoid intimidating the person sitting across from him.

I was familiar with that posture. When I had lost my parents in the Central Plains and asked the children of the family if they wanted to eat and live by doing chores or cleaning, I had likely looked the same way.

Most of the children cried and grabbed my hand, and when I encountered them again within the family, they would smile and thank me. Even when I took a child off the street and made them a servant for life, they would still refer to me as their benefactor.

If I had taught those children my internal cultivation techniques, they would have been overjoyed, performing the Nine Prostrations to show their respect as disciples. But in a martial family, the martial arts of outsiders were considered inferior, so I had never attempted such a thing before.

The world was different, so there was no need to think of things the same way. However, the more I understood, the more I lived, the more everything in this land seemed pitiable and sorrowful. Even now, with no hands to stretch out and no path back, I didn’t want to return to that place where everything I cherished had disappeared.

I felt pity for them, and pity for my past self, and my heart ached.

After some time, various explanations were given.

In the end, I was told that the technique I was asking about had not been realized yet, but if the right time came in the future, they would connect me with the Magic Tower.

When I asked why it couldn’t be done right now, he simply replied that I was not yet fully matured.

This world is gentle.

As I walked back to the dormitory, I found myself looking up at the sky more often than usual, feeling restless inside.

The dark sky was filled with stars, though not as numerous as in the Central Plains. There was light on the ground as well. In order to prevent students from tripping over stones on the dark roads, magical stones were embedded at intervals, illuminating the path with a sweet yellow glow.

As I walked, looking up at the sky every two steps, I realized I couldn’t take it anymore and shifted my steps toward the training grounds. When I felt suffocated, the only thing I could do was this. I had resolved not to cry anymore, to reach the level I regretted not achieving in my previous life, and although less than a month had passed since I made that decision, my heart was already wavering, which didn’t feel right.

The training ground, where no one was allowed to use it after eight o’clock, was quiet. A decorative tree that circled the darkened corner of the training ground swayed with the wind, its leaves rustling, as though it were weeping in the dark.

I couldn’t stand proudly in the center, so I took a seat at an inconspicuous corner and drew my sword.

I gripped the sword tightly with both hands. When returning to my original intent, it was always necessary to first practice the three treasures. I planted my feet firmly and began to swing horizontally. The line from the left to the right was a clear straight line, as if drawn with a ruler. Once, twice, again and again.

The first thing I learned when I first entered the Namgung Family was this. I was five years old then. I had to do a thousand horizontal swings, a thousand vertical swings, and a thousand thrusts before I could eat and sleep, all while standing in an untrained horse-riding stance.

At first, the tip of the sword would shake, and it would wildly dance from the upper left to the lower right, from the lower left to the upper right. That sword carried all the hours of tears and frustration as I endured through them, refining my lower body and calming my heart. It was the line I established at the age of sixteen.

Later, when the line was drawn correctly, my heart naturally calmed.

When inhaling, I gathered my energy, and when exhaling, I expelled it. All that I accumulated, I stacked neatly and pushed into my lower dantian.

I wanted to calm my mind, not with the *Changong Daeryeon Sin Gong* but following the essence of the *Samjae* internal method.

Though I did not use a handful of internal energy, the air was cut without a sound. I did not count the repetitions. I knew that the next breath would come at the right moment, at the right time.

After crossing the line a hundred times, I raised the sword and made a mark high in the air. The vertical swing also drew a firm, straight line. My gaze was forward, but the sword tip rose high, as though it were about to touch the moon, then came straight down to the front of my lower dantian.

The starlight briefly reflected off the sword blade, but the faint glow was barely visible within five paces.

My body was already exhausted from the day’s lessons. After tormenting my body and mind, there was no strength left to torture it further. The sweat-drenched, stiff training clothes clung tightly to my body. However, the speed at which I swung the sword remained consistent, as if each stroke was driven down from the heavens to the earth.

Just as I had suddenly come down to this land.

“…Hoo.”

I relaxed my horse-riding stance to thrust, firmly placing the sword behind my right waist. Straightening my upper body and adjusting my breath, I sensed someone approaching.

I hadn’t paid attention when I sensed them from afar, assuming they were heading toward another building, but now I felt them hesitate and draw closer, which made my heart stir.

Somehow, it bothered me that I hadn’t finished properly, and I felt unsettled. Not being able to put down my sword, I hesitated for a moment, keeping my gaze fixed on a point in the air.

As the footsteps grew closer, I eventually gave up and relaxed my stance.

“…I seem to have interrupted.”

“It’s fine.”

Knowing I had interrupted, I didn’t turn to leave.

The boy who emerged from the dark, black as the night, appeared as though I had encountered someone from the Western Regions. The only thing that resembled a person from the Central Plains were his hair and eye colors, while his tall stature and deep-set eyes were clearly traits of someone from the Shereon tribe.

After all, the boy even bore the name “Shereon.”

I had completely forgotten about him until I faced Luver, but suddenly I recalled the boy’s flustered and nervous demeanor during the morning class.

Standing with an empty heart in the early dawn, I felt a pang of concern. Now that I looked at the boy before me, he too seemed unsettled, perhaps with his own troubles weighing on him.

Like most who take walks in the dark of night.

If this were the Central Plains, and I were Namgung Jeongyeon in his forties, I would have taken a troubled youth like him by the wrist, sat him down at a tavern, and quietly offered him a bowl of noodles and a plate of dumplings to comfort him with a meal. But now, I had nothing to feed him, and nothing more to say.

It was strange, standing face to face with a boy who simply stared at me without speaking, as though time itself was held in the quiet breaths between us. After eight breaths of silence, I finally spoke first.

“What’s this? Since this morning…”

“What happened?”

“Happened? No… Nothing, really. I couldn’t sleep.”

I knew we weren’t the kind of people to open up to each other. He didn’t seem ready to leave, so I put my sword away and ran my hand through my sweaty hair, not caring about the dirt on my hands or in my hair. It didn’t matter since I could just wash up once I got back.

I almost spoke again but stopped, looking up at the boy’s troubled face. He was a solidly handsome kid. What could he possibly want to say by coming here in the middle of the night, practicing swordplay alone, and standing in front of me like this?

Seeing that he didn’t seem inclined to speak, I pondered for a moment, then turned and walked away. I made my way to the same tree under which Maelro, Sanson, and the two girls had sat together before, and sat down on the flat ground, knowing it was a good place to rest.

Without saying a word, the boy silently followed me and stood in front of me, just as Sanson had done before. He gently patted the spot beside him, indicating that I should sit.

“Aren’t you the one with something on your mind, senior?”

“…I’m just… unable to sleep.”

“Let’s watch the stars for a bit and then head in.”

I wasn’t good with words of comfort, and I didn’t know how to soothe others. After sitting silently for a while, I said, “Let’s go inside now. I’m tired.”

Luver nodded quietly, his head lowering in agreement.

I couldn’t help but think how strange it was, that a prince like him seemed so lost and helpless, as if he hadn’t had a single meal of porridge. After that, I went inside, bathed, and went to bed.

Perhaps it was because I had exhausted myself physically, or maybe it was because someone had silently kept me company, but I slept deeply that night, without any dreams.